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| Let the cuts begin: George Osborne announces £3 billion cuts for unprotected departments this year | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| George Osborne has announced £3 billion of cuts to non-protected departments as he makes an early start to his next programme of austerity. | |
| The cuts- equivalent to around 3 per cent of departmental budgets - come as part of the Chancellor's £4.5 billion package of savings to be made this year, with the remaining sell-off of Royal Mail shares expected to make up the remaining £1.5 billion. | |
| The hardest-hit budgets by the cuts - totalling £3 billion - will be defence, transport, the non-school education budget, justice and local government. | |
| Budgets that will escape the cuts will be the schools budget, international aid, defence equipment and the entire health budget, with the Conservative party’s manifesto pledging an additional £8 billion on the NHS, which will require even deeper savings elsewhere. | Budgets that will escape the cuts will be the schools budget, international aid, defence equipment and the entire health budget, with the Conservative party’s manifesto pledging an additional £8 billion on the NHS, which will require even deeper savings elsewhere. |
| Mr Osborne said the Department for Business will sell the public's remaining 30 per cent stake in the Royal Mail, which - at current market rates of 526p per share - will make the taxpayer a £1.5 billion profit. | |
| Tim Farron, the favourite contender to replace Nick Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats, warned that the cuts to local government would undermine the ability of councils to carry out core services and said the proposals revealed the Conservative party's "true colours". | Tim Farron, the favourite contender to replace Nick Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats, warned that the cuts to local government would undermine the ability of councils to carry out core services and said the proposals revealed the Conservative party's "true colours". |
| “Any further cut to local government budgets will potentially threaten the viability of many authorities to deliver vital services. The Liberal Democrats are the party of local government and we must oppose this. The Conservatives yet again want local government to take a disproportionate share of the cuts but also deliver better services. | “Any further cut to local government budgets will potentially threaten the viability of many authorities to deliver vital services. The Liberal Democrats are the party of local government and we must oppose this. The Conservatives yet again want local government to take a disproportionate share of the cuts but also deliver better services. |
| “At a time when demand for things like social services is increasing to think about proposing cuts to their budgets, to me, really does show the Conservatives’ true colours without the moderating influence of the Lib Dems in government.” | “At a time when demand for things like social services is increasing to think about proposing cuts to their budgets, to me, really does show the Conservatives’ true colours without the moderating influence of the Lib Dems in government.” |